The smoking kid, a watercolor painting from 1947

68 years ago, in 1947, Bob De Moor painted a drawing which has been part of the toilet ornaments of the family De Moor for years. Not surprisingly the drawing remained in the archives of the family De Moor and we can show it today for the very first time.

A 1947 drawing by Bob De Moor.

The watercolor painting shows a kid smoking a tobacco pipe, and looking at the kid’s body posture, his dad or mother just caught him in the act; you can see the light shining from the left, indicating someone opened the door. The drawing offers an insight in how the equipment of a smoker in 1947 looked like. You’ll see a collection of tobacco pipes gathered on the wall in a holder that has the text “Moge het pijpje u smaken en ‘t leven u gelukkig maken” which can be freely translated as “Enjoy your pipe and let life make you happy”. These wooden holders were omnipresent in many households back then and the one represented on this painting was actually commercially available.

The painting, signed R. De Moor ’47, also features a tobacco mug where tobacco was kept in plus a Union Match box with matches laying on the floor.

There’s also a detail showing that the kid’s family is not all that rich, he has no belt but uses a rope to keep his pants up. And staying with the kid, his shoes are typical Bob De Moor shoes for that time, look at the Hobbel & Sobbel shoes for instance and compare. You’ll clearly see a similarity.